How President Trump Is Turning the TV Industry Upside Down
The election of Trump will have major ramifications for television, including programming targeting Trumpsters, tweaked storylines, and even an election-themed ‘American Horror Story.’
Amy Zimmerman
02.19.17 12:00 AM ET

What if I told that you could relive the 2016 presidential election all over again—only this time, as a Ryan Murphy-directed American Horror Story installment? I imagine your first question would be “why?” closely followed by “will Lady Gaga be involved?” Unfortunately, the man who gave us 1,000 mediocre seasons of Glee and one perfect Marcia Clark has been fairly tight-lipped about his latest televised endeavor. Murphy broke the news on Watch What Happens Live on Wednesday, confiding in host Andy Cohen that, “I don’t have a title, but the season that we begin shooting in June is going to be about the election that we just went through.” To hear Murphy tell it, “I was thinking of this other thing and I literally sat up in bed and said ‘That’s it!’” Imagine if you could shake yourself out of a waking Trump nightmare by getting Sarah Paulson on the phone and just making something happen. Mysteriously, the director offered that Trump himself may or may not get the TV treatment, leaving viewers to wonder if this will be a show about the two presidential candidates or just a deep dive into Ted Cruz’s dubious ties to the Zodiac Killer

Remarkably enough, this isn’t the first miniseries slated to take on the extended national nightmare that was 2016. Why lose yourself in scripted escapism when you could just never think about anything except Donald Trump ever again? Writer Mark Boal and producer Megan Ellison (Zero Dark Thirty) are collaborating on a political drama that will chronicle the very recent presidential election. They’re reportedly aiming to limit the series to eight to 10 hours. Good luck with that.

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Elsewhere in TV land, Veep had to pull a pussy joke and Black-ish waited until a week before the inauguration to address the aftermath of Trump’s election. While these reaction episodes and reactionary rewrites are unavoidable, the reception to unsolicited election-themed projects (*cough cough* Ryan Murphy) and longer-term planning remains to be seen.

And for everything that divides us, Americans may not need party-specific programming. According to a July 2016 analysis by E-Poll Market Research, Democrats and Republicans have a remarkable overlap in “favorite” TV shows, with The Walking Dead, Supernatural, and The Big Bang Theory all reaching across the aisle. Americans may not have great taste, but at least we can all agree on something: Sheldon Cooper 2020?_________________Valdemar's Warrior Women